Cyclones are global convective weather phenomena associated with intense winds, extreme precipitation, and storm surges in coastal regions. They are frequently devastating to society, both from economic and loss-of-life perspectives.At the same time, studies show that the deadliest and costliest natural disasters seen in the past 20 years were forecasted. The state of scientific knowledge empowers us to anticipate a disaster and take action before it strikes. Suchanticipatory action can bring significant benefits across multiple sectors: humanitarian (fewer lives lost), infrastructure (lower reconstruction costs post-event) and finance (effective risk transfer in insurance and reinsurance industries).While there are strong benefits to anticipatory action, there are also objective barriers to deploying it at scale, most significantly:
- Uncertainty as to when and under what conditions pre-emptive action should be triggered.
- Inaccessible, inconsistent or incoherent data at a global scale.